Long - Newbie PFS 2E Player Questions :(

[Homunculus23]

I am just starting with PFS with the release of 2E. I never felt I had the time or ability to jump into 1E PFS (traveling in US Army) and, after playing D&D AL, enjoyed Organized Play. Dropped out of GMing AL after noticing that no one needed to keep records on anything to cheat, but I still run Numenera’s Cypher Play.
I am trying to wrap my head around the 2E PFS. Got the general gist of character creation and played twice with pre-gens.

1. I thought the whole of the PFS economy is silver pieces? The ending sheets list GP Gained, but should this be SP Gained instead?

2. Is the “Welcome to PFS Boon” still in use for 2E? I see a lot of references to it but cannot find any details on the webpage.

3. The Reputation/Fame/School things…. This has me confused. Been reading the webpage. Let me see if I am correct or if someone would kindly correct me.
Each adventure I get Boons awarded from the sheet. I can use that with another GM – got it.
Then each PC starts with 3 points when they to place in Scrolls, Spells, or Swords “PFS schools.” Depending on how they put the points into “PFS schools,” they can select from the one-two-three points of each “school” for a starting consumable magic item to aid them on the quest. There is also a “general school."

4. Reputation and Fame – I am lost. You *have to choose* one of the 4 major or 2 minor Factions at the start of a quest, even in PFS Scenario 1-01, that shows all four/six factions? Or do you choose and gain the Rep during the adventure?

5. Can you change the Rep gained from a pre-gen to another Faction once you have built a character?

6. I am not sure what Fame is or how that works differently then Reputation.

7. Seen Repeatable and Faction tags on adventures. Does the Faction tag mean I must be in that Faction?
If I follow, the Boon to quest for the Faction, getting Rep for them, cost 4 Reputation *in that Faction*, how can you champion them? It seems like a chicken-and-the-egg problem – need Rep to get the Boon to get Rep.

Thanks! Looking to try out my first PFS built character.

(Thank you for reading the long post. I am sure I’ll have questions about Downtime too.)

[RealAlchemy]

Homunculus23 wrote:

I am just starting with PFS with the release of 2E. I never felt I had the time or ability to jump into 1E PFS (traveling in US Army) and, after playing D&D AL, enjoyed Organized Play. Dropped out of GMing AL after noticing that no one needed to keep records on anything to cheat, but I still run Numenera’s Cypher Play.

I am trying to wrap my head around the 2E PFS. Got the general gist of character creation and played twice with pre-gens.

1. I thought the whole of the PFS economy is silver pieces? The ending sheets list GP Gained, but should this be SP Gained instead?

2. Is the “Welcome to PFS Boon” still in use for 2E? I see a lot of references to it but cannot find any details on the webpage.

3. The Reputation/Fame/School things…. This has me confused. Been reading the webpage. Let me see if I am correct or if someone would kindly correct me.
Each adventure I get Boons awarded from the sheet. I can use that with another GM – got it.
Then each PC starts with 3 points when they to place in Scrolls, Spells, or Swords “PFS schools.” Depending on how they put the points into “PFS schools,” they can select from the one-two-three points of each “school” for a starting consumable magic item to aid them on the quest. There is also a “general school."

4. Reputation and Fame – I am lost. You *have to choose* one of the 4 major or 2 minor Factions at the start of a quest, even in PFS Scenario 1-01, that shows all four/six factions? Or do you choose and gain the Rep during the adventure?

5. Can you change the Rep gained from a pre-gen to another Faction once you have built a character?

6. I am not sure what Fame is or how that works differently then Reputation.

7. Seen Repeatable and Faction tags on adventures. Does the Faction tag mean I must be in that Faction?
If I follow, the Boon to quest for the Faction, getting Rep for them, cost 4 Reputation *in that Faction*, how can you champion them? It seems like a chicken-and-the-egg problem – need Rep to get the Boon to get Rep.

Thanks!...

A couple of the easy to explain ones :

1. Economy is silver based, but one gold is still 10 silver. GP gained is still correct on the chronicle sheets, you just gain a lot less gold than in PF1 because of the economy.

7. Faction tag means that said faction might get a bonus boon, but any character can play the scenario. Repeatable tag means you can play it again with a different character.

[Homunculus23]

HAHA! "Real Alchemy" replying to "Homunculus'" question. How Jungian is that?!?
+1!

[Lucky Slicer]

Homunculus23 wrote:

3. The Reputation/Fame/School things…. This has me confused. Been reading the webpage. Let me see if I am correct or if someone would kindly correct me.
Each adventure I get Boons awarded from the sheet. I can use that with another GM – got it.
Then each PC starts with 3 points when they to place in Scrolls, Spells, or Swords “PFS schools.” Depending on how they put the points into “PFS schools,” they can select from the one-two-three points of each “school” for a starting consumable magic item to aid them on the quest. There is also a “general school."

4. Reputation and Fame – I am lost. You *have to choose* one of the 4 major or 2 minor Factions at the start of a quest, even in PFS Scenario 1-01, that shows all four/six factions? Or do you choose and gain the Rep during the adventure?

Thanks!...

I'll take a few. The choice of PFS schools is a extra boost at character creation. The most common choice is to pick 3 points in one of the schools, which gives you 2 free items at the start of each adventure from that school's list or the general list, one at your level, and one at half your level. Alternatively, if you're effective at using downtime, you may want to be a field commissioned agent, and get extra downtime instead.

The normal way to deal with factions is that you pick one at character creation, which gives you a free boon to champion the faction. While you could buy more faction boons and switch between them, the convention is to pick one and stick with it. That provides you reputation with that faction (which is a running total that always goes up). You also get fame, which you can spend on stuff from the guide.

When a scenario is tagged with a faction, it often provides characters an opportunity to get an extra boost with that faction. If you're playing multiple characters, that's an incentive to pick the character that matches the faction for the adventure. But it's just a suggestion, and you play a character that doesn't match, and it will be fine.

[Nefreet]

Homunculus23 wrote:

5. Can you change the Rep gained from a pre-gen to another Faction once you have built a character?

The answer to this is hidden in the online Guide:

"Until you play a game in which your character has 12 or more XP, you can freely rebuild your character completely except for Reputation earned and character number."

But that's okay, because you can always purchase another Champion Boon for a different Faction. Indeed, over the course of your character's career, they'll likely earn Reputation for several different Factions. Starting off with a few points here rather than there doesn't really impact you at all.

WELCOME ABOARD!1

[Athos710]

Fame is a spendable resource. You gain Fame for getting stuff done in the adventures.

Reputation is how much people in Faction X think you're cool. You gain Reputation for the faction you represent on an adventure, depending on how much Fame you got in that adventure. This never goes down.

Depending on how high your Reputation is, influences how much Fame you can cash in with that faction for some bonus (faction boons).

There is an "all factions" list that totals your Reputation from all the factions. Think of this one as how much the Society as a whole thinks you're cool.

[Gary Bush]

Homunculus23 wrote:

2. Is the “Welcome to PFS Boon” still in use for 2E? I see a lot of references to it but cannot find any details on the webpage.

Since no one answered this, I will. There is no "Welcome to Pathfinder Society" boon for second edition. The schools fill that part and do it better. Where are you seeing it referenced?

To expand on the schools, you don't have to be part of any school. The schools represent "formal" Pathfinder Agent training. You can choose to be a "field commission" agent. What this means is that the character gains 4 extra days (assuming a full adventure, not a quest) of downtime. The character can still gets something from the society like the trained agents but it is only items that are half the field-commission character level.

[Homunculus23]

Thank you all for your help! I really appreciate the help.
At this moment, the only thing once can do with downtime is to work a job, right?

The "Welcome to Pathfinder Society" is referenced on the board and download guide.

[Nefreet]

You can also Craft during Downtime. You actually save more money Crafting than you would make with Earn Income.

There is no "downloadable guide", currently, and I don't see anything referenced on the Forums.

You might be getting PFS1 and PFS2 mixed up.

[Homunculus23]

Nefreet wrote:

You can also Craft during Downtime. You actually save more money Crafting than you would make with Earn Income.

There is no "downloadable guide", currently, and I don't see anything referenced on the Forums.

You might be getting PFS1 and PFS2 mixed up.

Most likely - newbie error.

[Gary Bush]

Homunculus23 wrote:

Thank you all for your help! I really appreciate the help.

At this moment, the only thing once can do with downtime is to work a job, right?

The "Welcome to Pathfinder Society" is referenced on the board and download guide.

You can Craft, as Nefreet says. I am not sure about saving more than you can earn on an earned income check but I have not looked into that aspect yet.

You can retrain during downtime as well.

Yeah, the downloadable guide is for PFS1e.

A lot to learn but there are lots of people around to help. Talk with your local Venture Officers (VO). They are there to help with questions.

[albadeon]

Gary Bush wrote:

You can Craft, as Nefreet says. I am not sure about saving more than you can earn on an earned income check but I have not looked into that aspect yet.

You craft at your level, i.e. you add value to your item as if you had succeeded at an Earn Income check at your level, while when you actually Earn Income you can usually only do that at level-2 (minimum 0), that's where the primary "profit" from crafting during downtime in PFS comes from.

However, you only see the profit from crafting after you're finished, which can take a while and by then you might not really need the item anymore. Alternatively, with the small amounts gained per day at lower levels, if you want to be finished reasonably quickly, you're pretty much limited to consumables. Which means your gains will likely go up in smoke, eventually...

[Gary Bush]

Good to know. Thanks!

[Homunculus23]

I think I am getting this.
The Schools give you access to a consumable, skill, and/or second consumable depending on how many points you put into each School. Max 3.

Factions have Boons available. You use Fame to buy the Boons, which are "unlocked" or available based on the Reputation in that Faction.

E.G., 40 Fame - 10 Rep in Grand Archive and 30 in Vigilant Seal means I have access to:
All-Faction Boons Tier 3 and lower
Grand Archive Boons Tier 1 and lower
Vigilant Seal Boons Tier 2 and lower

You can only have 5 Boons "slotted" at one time. Three are generic, one is Faction, and is one Advance.

Are Boons like gear carried permanently, or do you reset/re-buy at the start of every mission?
E.G., GA with 10 Fame; buys Vigilant Seal Champion = now 6 Fame and can choose VS or GA Champion Boons.

[Gary Bush]

Yep your getting it.

Purchased boons are permanent unless noted otherwise.

[roll4initiative]

Boons are carried permanently. Looks like you understand everything very well.

Cheers! And welcome aboard.

Ninja'd by Gary!